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The publication of Beyond the Binary, edited by Shari Thurer, is a welcomed development in an emerging area of psychoanalytic study on non-binary gender identities. Beyond the Binary is a product of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute's (BSPI) Library Committee. At the behest of the Library Committee, Thurer was tasked with forming a group to study ‘the history of the BPSI's and the larger analytic community's changing views on homosexuality (sic)’ (Teusch 2023, xv). This book on psychoanalysis and gender non-binary identities was the result of this study group and the fourth in the series from the BSPI. The direction and
impetus for compiling this work are important. Few psychoanalytic resources are available on non-binary gender identities. In fact, there is a deficit in psychoanalytic research regarding gender non-binary identities and experiences. As such, this was a monumental undertaking.
Beyond the Binary attempts a counter-discourse in the midst of a massive antitrans movement. In the past few years, transgender identities have been at the centre of political conflict. In the United States, states across the nation have passed hundreds of anti-LGBTQ laws, with a strong focus against transgender people. Antitransgender politicians have pushed to limit access for transgender people from policing bathroom use, restricting access to HRT, to limiting access to identification cards that reflect their gender identities. Of critical importance for clinical professions, laws now exist purporting to protect children by limiting access to health care for gender transition. At the core of this anti-trans movement is bigotry against transgender people. This wave of bigotry has had a tremendous effect on the lives of transgender people. In the United Kingdom, a similar series of events has unfolded with anti-trans legislation fronted by politicians purporting to protect women and children from transgender people.
Under such intense political pressure, the psy